Things have been a might mellow here, and I'm not complaining. I've made a lovely new Korean friend, who I think I mentioned, but if not I shall mention her now. About two weeks ago I was out a Gypsy Rock on the middle of the week Korean holiday and met my new friend whose Korean name is Sook-young, but whose English name as fate would have it (most of the Korean's adopt English names if they speak English) is Sara. We had a merry time dancing until 4 am, and all of the people who had gone out with me abandoned me to my own devices so that she ended up taking me to a cab and sending me home. We met again that weekend and ended up going out dancing and drinking again until about 6 am, and spent allot of time talking and getting to know each other in a very interesting little Korean cocktail bar where the bartenders watched the movie Cocktail one to many times as they all do tricks and make strange drinks. The happy things is she knows the staff so we tend to get most of! our drinks for free.

Last Saturday she called me up once again and we ended up heading out to Seomoun Market, the largest market in Korea, which I've talked about before. This time we managed to find the fabric section with much less trouble then I had the last time I was there. It is really quite amazing the selection they have, and although allot of the material was out of my range, I did find three nice pieces that where only about a dollar or two a meter and bought them. I have since made a pair of pants that are very cool, flowy and purple, but I still need to get a sewing machine here. It will be easier to get one hear since the plugs are different and western appliances seem to eat the juice (electricity that is, yellow gold, you know it).

At the market I bumped into a very interesting little souvenir that I picked up. I am trying to keep my Korean consumption to a minimum and as of this writing I have only picked up a very interesting Korean bell, and the piece I got Saturday a traditional Korean pipe. It's about three feet long with a metal mouthpiece and a metal bowl piece and the pipe stem is made of bamboo, it is really beautiful. It has a bird motif and is a little weighty. I picked up the pipe before we got to the fabric section and Sook-young was generally amused by the reaction of most of the Koreans. They could not help grabbing the pipe and telling stories about the grandfathers (in Korean of course) who used to have the "exact same thing". According to SY, they would sit on the porch, smoke the pipe, and if you walked by they would hit you in the head. I gathered this from the several demonstration I had as people would grab the pipe, put it to their mouths, and then hit me in the head with it. In! all it was rather amusing.

After this we walked to downtown (about two miles from the market to the city center) and had a nice dinner of Dok-Booki, Vegtable Mondu, and Bi-bim-bop, which we shared. After that we went out for drinks again, but swore off dancing.

Last week I also ventured to a very strange Korean night club called Carnegie. Unlike the American bars, or the little Korean bars the night clubs are huge and spacious and they have live floor shows. The Koreans seem to enjoy them as a rule, and aside from being very loud, it was fairly pleasant, if a bit pricey (we had to pay a cover and drinks were extra and you are required to buy some kind of anjou (side dish) even though none of use where hungry). Fortunately our Director footed most of the bill, we just had to pay a cover.

That's about all for now, as this is getting long and drawn out. Feel free to write as my inbox has been lagging the last couple of days. I suppose I am slightly to blame as I haven't written in a few.